SKINDRED

KARNIVOOL

DEAD BY APRIL

On a cold October night, a full capacity audience decent on Camden for one of the most hotly anticipated and diverse concerts in recent memory.

Dead By April get the night started with a fairly standard display of screamo pop metal. While they don’t play badly, you can’t help but feel that everything is far too calculated and fabricated. They sound almost like a band trying to be Atreyu but aimed at Backstreet Boys fans.

Australians Karnivool, however, are a very different band. In fact they are a breath of fresh air after the opening act. Looking almost awkward on stage, the five piece band but on a great, unique and compelling performance of progressive rock music which could one day see them talked about in the same sentence as Tool and Dream Theater as the best in the genre.

Skindred have been around for 10 years as frontman Benji Webbe announces a number of times throughout the night and its great to see a band that has struggled with the record industry finally get the recognition they deserve. After impressive performances at recent festivals, these Welsh Reggae Metallers have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with and while on record they sound great… live is just awesome. The set list draws from their two albums and one EP, the set list sounds pretty familiar but this just means that everyone goes nuts for the whole set. ‘Trouble’, ‘Destroy the Dance Floor’ and ‘Pressure’ are as effortlessly cools as always, and their cover of Eddie Grant’s ‘Electric Avenue’ is a great addiction to the set.

Benji is definitely one of the most exciting and entertaining frontman in the UK music scene at the moment and from the moment he wonders on stage he has the crowd at his mercy. He is like a magician on the stage and everyone is under his spell and doing whatever the hell he tells them to do. Plus the between song banter and anecdotes are as funny as ever leaving everyone with a smile beaming across their faces.

So as Skindred get more and more infections as a live band, here is hoping that they now get the support they need to go on to even more spectacular things. The future’s bright, the future is Welsh Reggae Metal.

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